Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 23/09/2026A rather dishevelled but still hardworking (look at her pollen baskets!) Common Carder Bee on Toadflax, still in flower on Wood Farm this afternoon. 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Getting the Two-wheel Tractor out of its container and into a van for transport to Newton Farm (to cut the grass in the meadows) was a tricky procedure, This fellow watched the whole proceedings and probably could have given good advice! 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 15/09/2026A lovely Guelder Rose seen yesterday on Bentley Priory 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 12/09/2026You can still find flowers in the flower-rich meadows at Bentley Priory: lots of Devils-bit Scabious in bloom yesterday. 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Young toad in an area where bramble was cut 10 minutes earlier at Bentley Priory yesterday. Their ability to evade the blades is impressive - they hunker down near the soil safe, at least from the blades: after the cut buzzard, red kite and fox (pictured) were all hunting over the now short grass. 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 07/09/2026We have birdboxes to give, thanks to workers at the Toureen Company. Now is the time to put them up: birds can investigate now and then perhaps move in in the spring. All have hole protectors to prevent squirrels and woodpeckers taking chicks. Contact us at admin@harrownc.org.uk and we will deliver. 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Coot family with two tiny fuzzball chicks on Tuesday August 18th at Summerhouse Lake, Bentley Priory. This is their second brood, and it is down to two tiny babies, but now so each parent can look after one. A grumpy teenager from the first brood was looking on from the bank. 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 30/06/2026This is not AI! Wood Farm nature reserve (www.harrowncf.org/WF_home.html) at sunset on Saturday June 27th. Image by Robert Stone. 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 23/06/2026The two green bags are the galls of the aphid Eriosoma lanuginosum (I think!) on an elm hedge at Harrow School Farm, photographed this morning. 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 21/06/2026Ragged Robin in the wet grass of the Western Spring, Bentley Priory, this morning. 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 06/06/2026Volunteers from Coca-Cola pulling saplings on Thursday in the acid heathland at Stanmore Common to prevent this rare environment turning into woodland - thanks everyone! 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 03/06/2026Volunteers pulling bracken today to preserve the rare acid grassland at Stanmore Country Park - thanks everyone! 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 30/05/2026I know that everyone is seeing them but they are lovely! Painted Lady at Bentley Priory yesterday. 020
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 29/05/2026It may not look much but we were very pleased to see this Adders-tongue fern at Bentley Priory this afternoon. We found 20 individual plants so the colony, last recorded in 1993, is doing OK. 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 25/05/2026The boundary stream at Osterley was a lovely cool place to be yesterday morning; we helped CURB (Clean Up the River Brent) looking at invertebrates in the Boundary Stream near Osterley Park. Inset: water cricket after it let go of its prey, which it spent the first 2 hours sucking dry! 032
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 23/05/2026The mature Wild Service Tree at Wood Farm is covered with blossom. The flowers at the top are already a bit brownish (photo taken yesterday), the ones at the bottom are fresh and white. 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 21/05/2026Sunlight glinting on the wings of an immature male Broad-bodied Chaser at Stanmore Common yesterday. He will soon develop a lovely blue colour on the abdomen. The many new ponds being created on this site in the "Back to the Future" project will greatly benefit this and other aquatic invertebrates. 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 19/05/2026Discover the plants - and the wildlife on it - hiding in plain site on the streets of south Harrow this Sunday! 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 11/05/2026A caterpillar of the Pale Brindled Beauty moth seen yesterday at Stanmore Common. It was very tiny but impressively warty and hairy! 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 10/05/2026Volunteers building a leaky dam at Stanmore Common today - thanks everyone! 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 02/05/2026Wild garlic in bloom today at one of our sites - I won't say where since we don't want to encourage foraging. 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 01/05/2026This is the Siberian Crabapple Malus baccata in bloom at post 7 on the nature trail at Stanmore Country Park, photographed on Wednesday (April 29th). Not a native species but it is gorgeous! 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 29/04/2026Hawthorn in blossom at Wood Farm. Ten years ago, in preperation for handing the site over to Harrow council, areas of small trees and shrubs were planted. Hazel and hawthorn did well, here's the some of the hawthorn in bloom today. 021
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 26/04/2026Goldilocks buttercup plus violets in bloom at Lady Gilbert's Orchard, Old Redding yesterday afternoon. 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 02/04/2026Brimstone butterfly at Sylvia Avenue open space this afternoon. There was a lot of bee (and bee fly) activity too. 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 26/03/2026A patch of Wood Anemone in Lower Priory Wood at Bentley Priory yesterday. This area of woodland has a lovely mixed ground flora with anemone, lesser celandine, violets and a few early bluebells all in bloom now. 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 25/03/2026Two clumps of Lords and Ladies at Bentley Priory this morning. The scientific name, Arum maculatum, means Spotted Arum, referring to the black spots on the leaves, but only about half the plants in a population have that phenotype. The other 50%, like the top clump, have no spots. 110
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 20/03/2026Early Thorn moth, one of two seen yesterday evening while moth trapping at Lady Gilbert's Orchard in Old Redding Nature Reserve. 001
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 14/03/2026Before and after this morning - we removed a large cherry laurel in the ancient woodland of Heriots Wood at Bentley Priory. Should improve the ground flora that will now get more rain and light. Inset: warden Martin Fairley at work on the laurel with our Stihl battery chainsaw. 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 04/03/2026In the sunlight this afternoon: Chionodoxa naturalized in Bentley Old Vicarage nature reserve (www.harrowncf.org/BOV_home.html). Not a native species, but very pretty. 011
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 02/03/2026Free homes for birds! Workers at The Toureen Group have donated their time to create gorgeous sturdy bird boxes from offcuts of wood (see image). If you'd like one or more to put up in your garden contact Steve Bolsover at admin@harrowncf.org. 021
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 28/02/2026The marsh at the north end of Summerhouse Lake in Bentley Priory is now properly waterlogged, thanks not only to all the rain but also the work of TCV volunteers who a few months ago cut channels to make sure it stayed wet. 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 23/02/2026TCV @tcvnational.bsky.social volunteers created a second enormous stag beetle loggery at Bentley Priory today, helping to tidy up the logs created by our coppicing project and those created when we cleared a big oak that had fallen across Deer Path. Thanks everyone! 022
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 10/02/2026Yesterday volunteers from @tcvnational.bsky.social built a gorgeous big stag beetle loggery with logs from the coppicing work in Heriots Wood, Bentley Priory. The sky looks grey but it did not rain and we even got sun at lunch time! 011
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 07/02/2026Snowdrops in bloom at Lady Gilberts Orchard this afernoon. 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 20/01/2026Yesterday volunteers from @tcvnational.bsky.social cut scallops into the mature scrub edge of The Greensward at Bentley Priory. The scrub will regrow providing new young shoots and leaves for animals that prefer that - for example Brown Hairstreaks, which prefer three year old blackthorn. 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 16/01/2026Not a great picture but shows the thrashing "glad hands" growth pattern characteristic of oaks - but in this case taken to extremes. A lovely old oak at Sylvia Avenue open space. To the right are some of the non-native cypress trees that we hope to remove, giving the oak a better chance of survival. 1150
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 14/01/2026Yesterday Harrow Council installed an information panel at Sylvia Avenue Open Space www.harrowncf.org/Sylvia_Avenu... giving information about this pretty little site. The artwork was created by local volunteers. You will have to go visit the site to read what it says! 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 05/01/2026Volunteers from The Conservation Volunteers @tcvnational.bsky.social worked at the marsh on Summer house Lake in Bentley Priory today, a beautiful cold sunny winters day. We coppiced alder and dug canals to make sure that the marsh remains wet. Thanks everyone! 021
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 02/01/2026We went off looking for flowers (yes, they have to be in bloom!) at Bentley Priory today as part of the bsky.app/profile/bsbi... New Year's plant hunt. Here we are recording a flowering white dead nettle! 020
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 01/01/2026The longhorn cattle are now back on Spring Meadow at Bentley Priory (photo taken today); the intention is that they will browse the young shoots of bramble as they appear in spring and help the transition of the bramble patches to open grassland. 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 18/12/2025Brown hairstreak butterfly egg spotted at Newton Farm last week (12th December 2025). One of two we spotted without looking very hard - no doubt there are more. 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 16/12/2025Monsters in the swamp: Pynding Mersc at Stanmore Common last week (7th December 2025). We love waterlogged dead wood - lots of specialized fungi and invertebrates need this ecological niche. 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 08/12/2025Volunteers from the TCV coppicing hazel at Bentley Priory today. As set out in the manangement plan, we coppiced a third of the hazel; another third will be coppiced next winter, and the last third the winter after that. The wood is not wasted: most will be used for fencing on other reserves. 021
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 06/12/2025While working at The Scrape yesterday we found a puffball and set it puffing. 030
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 05/12/2025Before and after our emergency working party this morning at The Scrape, Wood Farm, clearing an enormous number of trees that vandals had cut and dumped into the water - one of the best quality ponds in Harrow. 021
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 04/12/2025Gorse in bloom yesterday under blue sky at Stanmore Country Park. We are glad that we did not timetable any outdoor work today - the weather is horrible! 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 03/12/2025A lovely winter day at Stanmore Country Park today. Volunteers cut bramble on John's Ride to keep the ride open and maintain the grassland flora. We are using our lovely quiet Stihl battery brush cutters. 010
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 30/11/2025Low sun gives heightened colour to the green bramble and yellow hazel leaves in woodland at Old Redding Nature Reserve this afternoon. 000
Harrow Nature Conservation @harrowncf.bsky.social · 29/11/2025Volunteers raked up cut grass and bramble at Bentley Priory today to help preserve the species-rich grasslands. It was damp but not nearly as bad as predicted! This is our last raking session; now we move on to winter activities. 000
